Reflections, Reviews and News from the worlds of Opera and Classical Music

Saturday, 28 January 2017

Deutsche Oper Berlin: Tannhäuser

27 January 2017

This Tannhäuser performance
marked the start of what will be a drawn-out mini Wagnerthon in Berlin. I plan
to catch the Deutsche Oper’s Lohengrin
next week, then the final revival of its Götz Friedrich Ring and (at the Staatsoper im Schillertheater) Dmitri Tcherniakov’s Parsifal
at Easter. Add in the Komische Oper Meistersingerand the
Deutsche Oper Parsifal I saw before
Christmas, and it means in six months I’ll have seen all the mature Wagner’s operas
bar one, Der fliegende Holländer,
here in the Hauptstadt—with Parsifal twice.

It will be interesting to see how the messages of these works take on
new significance as the world—the Anglophone world, specifically—continues its sudden downward spiral into intolerance and insularity. Does feasting on such riches
represent escapism, or a small-scale act of resistance, sticking up for art in
a world in which it is increasingly threatened?

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It’s difficult to say, and in any case Tannhäuser probably has less to say about politics than the other
works I shall be seeing; certainly Kristen Harms’s 2008 production doesn’t
probe in that direction. By contrast, the website blurb for Kasper Holten’s Lohengrin, awash with mentions of Putin,
promises a ‘timeless political power struggle’. Nevertheless, I couldn’t stop
myself, on the day of their joint press conference, wondering about a staging
of Tannhäuser with Trump as the
errant minstrel and Theresa May as Elisabeth. Perhaps Teresa-without-the-h May
could be Venus.

Bad idea: Tannhäuser is hardly one of Wagner’s most likeable characters, but that’s still to do him an enormous disservice. Maybe I should
stick with an earlier idea for a Salome
with Trump as Herod, Melania as Herodias and Ivanka as the Judean Princess.

Either way, this was a spiritually restorative evening when
such a thing was sorely needed. The firm foundation was provided by Donald Runnicles’s
conducting (of the Dresden version), instinctive, grand and often viscerally
exciting; the flexible, burnished playing of the Deutsche Oper orchestra; and
the thrilling singing from the massed chorus and extra chorus.

I failed to catch these forces when they brought this same
opera to the BBC Proms in 2013, but couldn’t help draw comparison with the far
less solid musical standards at the Royal Opera’s revival of Tim Albery’s
production at the end of last season. There really is nothing like an orchestra, such as the
Deutsche Oper’s, that plays this repertoire regularly, and under a conductor, such
as Runnicles, who has such a natural and instinctive command for the
music. And the programme revealed a remarkable statistic: this was the 35th
performance of the work at this house since the production was new in late
November 2008—a Traviata-esque
figure.

There’d been a bit of chopping and changing in the cast,
which ended up being led by Robert Dean Smith’s Tannhäuser, reliable and often
even elegant in his phrasing—the former quality always a relief in this most
taxing of roles, the latter a real luxury. Dramatically he can seem a little
tentative, but I suspected his performance here was further held back in that
regard by lack of rehearsal—especially in his interactions with Camilla
Nyland’s voluptuously sung Venus, where the production also went a little thin on ideas.

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There was a generous, pleasingly round-toned and intelligent
Wolfram from James Rutherford, and Ante Jerkunica’s Herman was impressively
resonant and imposing, even if I prefer my Wagner basses with a little more
granitic focus. The other minstrels were excellent, and Nyland, doubling both
lead female roles, was also a moving Elisabeth.

Such double casting has its obvious advantages—pragmatic and
dramatic—but Harms’s production didn’t help clarify things when her prostrate
Elisabeth simply stood up at the close to sing as Venus. Before that point, there was no
shortage of memorable and moving visual spectacle, making use of some highly
atmospheric lighting (Bernd Damovsky was responsible for lighting, as well
stage and costume designs).

Magical appearances from the bowels of the stage and from
the flies are a major feature, effects that are often choreographed with a very good
ear for what’s going on in the music. The staging of the Venusburg music, during which a Tannhäuser in armour is lowered into a writhing group of buxom
maidens in what might be a vast bubble bath, is probably one of the most
successful settings of that music I’ve seen on stage (not, admittedly, saying
much), and was all the better for the hint of humour it suggested.

Elsewhere things felt less successful: the arrival of Herman,
Wolfram & Co at the end of Act 1 on some very noisy horses on wheels, for
example; the questionable comedy medieval hats given to guests for the song contest; the decision to confine Act 3’s chorus to hospital beds. As
with Philipp Stözl’s Parsifal at this house,
though, nothing actively mitigated us forming our own interpretations, and,
importantly, much in the staging served to underline and amplify the
extraordinary power of the music—what a fabulous score Tannhäuser is!—and the musical performance.

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About Me

I am freelance critic, writer and musicologist based in Berlin. I have held editorial posts at Gramophone and Opera, was opera critic of the Spectator and have worked as a critic for the Daily Telegraph and Financial Times. I was editor of 30-Second Opera (Ivy Press, 2015), now also available – when I checked last – in French, German and Spanish. My PhD (awarded from King's College London in early 2011) was a critical reassessment of Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal's 'Die Frau ohne Schatten'; further details of my academic work can be found under 'Publications and Papers'.
If you'd like to email me, I can be reached on hugojeshirley[at]gmail.com.

About this Blog

Fatal Conclusions is designed to serve as a modest outlet for various reviews (of varying levels of formality and punctuality) and ideas regarding what's going on in the Opera and Classical Music worlds--and, if I'm feeling adventurous, beyond. Thanks for popping by. I hope you enjoy reading and please feel free to leave comments.